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CHILLICOTHE - As legislation to create a citywide curbside recycling program underwent the first of three planned readings before City Council Monday night, the prospect of additional grant funding to help support such a program may exist in the near future.

The legislation already incorporates language accepting a $250,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and a $50,000 grant from the Ross Pickaway Highland Fayette Solid Waste District, and city officials who have been working on creation of the program much of this year have already learned another $50,000 has been built into the solid waste district's budget for the program in 2018. They also have been led to believe that another grant from the Ohio EPA in 2018 is also a likely outcome with a successful launch of the program.

"Late last Friday afternoon, the Ohio EPA reached out to me and there's a grant available, I think it's (from an organization) called The Recycling Partnership, and (it includes) companies here in Ohio — Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble are two of the big ones," Carman said. "There's three cities in the state that got this grant and they actually reached out to the EPA and said they would like to talk to us about offering us a grant for recycling."

Carman said the partnership will be looking to set up a meeting at a later date for further discussions about a grant.

Councilwoman Beth Neal added that creation of the program has also caught the attention of The Sugar Bush Foundation, a supporting organization of the Ohio University Foundation. Neal and Mayor Luke Feeney recently attended a meeting at Ohio University Chillicothe with staff members of the local college and representatives of the foundation to discuss how grant funding awarded to OUC could help the recycling program.

"The intent of them helping us is to get the OU student marketing classes to provide all of our marketing materials and to help us with education (about recycling and the program)," Neal said. "They have experience where they actually go to things like football games or basketball games, set up a little table and pass out literature and answer questions to try and help educate and change the behavior of people so they're more willing to participate in recycling."

OUC would apply for the grant, with grant awards announced in February and money likely distributed in July of next year. Utilizing that assistance would help defray some of the expected education and marketing costs officials said would be necessary to maximize participation in curbside recycling.

The legislation before council also includes an appropriation of $630,000 from the city's unappropriated general fund for the purchase of a truck and for recycling bins for each city home, authorizes the hiring of two recycling program positions and establishes a $1.95 monthly fee for residents for the service, with 25 cents of each fee going to capital expenditures for the program.

Mayor Luke Feeney, in an emailed response to a concern voiced by Eric Rinehart about the emergency language in the legislation that would make the ordinance active immediately upon passage, indicated he would speak with the law director and council about the possibility of removing that emergency language and letting the ordinance go into effect the normal 30 days following passage.

In other city and council news:

Carman announced that the start time for the city's trick-or-treating Oct. 31 will be bumped back to 6 p.m. and run through 7:30 p.m. The city had received some concerns from residents that the original 5 p.m. start time could cause problems because of when parents get off work and due to additional traffic on the roads as people return home from work that could cause safety issues for children crossing streets.

Council heard a pair of differing points of view on whether a portion of Second Street from Walnut Street to High Street should be repaved or left as a brick road. One resident of that stretch of road expressed concerns with dust, manholes sticking out of the ground from where milling of the street was done and a fear that the now-exposed bricks that are already damaged would deteriorate quickly. Another resident of the same stretch said she and others don't share those concerns and would like the road to remain a brick thoroughfare, saying it enhances the historic look of the downtown. Carman said a committee request will be headed to council to look at what would need to be done to either pave the road or keep it as brick so that a final decision can be made.

Carman told council members that the recently repaved Carlisle Hill may have to be closed temporarily for a day, possibly later this week, to find the source of water that has been seeping up through the new pavement in the center of the road.

Council approved the acceptance of a Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant to help pay for four firefighters for a three-year period. The federal share of the grant is up to $611,602, with the city's share a maximum of $380,186.